​NJ School Chooses Chromebooks Over iPads

Aug 5, 2014

WEIGHING OPTIONS: Educators in the Hillsborough School District in New Jersey have cast their vote in the iPad vs. Chromebook debate. After a year of testing both devices in the classroom, Hillsborough has decided to go with Chromebooks, citing several reasons: the keyboard (especially helpful with upcoming Common Core testing), easier student collaboration through Google’s Apps for Education suite, better tech support, and a focus on work instead of play. As The Atlantic reports, “Students saw the iPad as a ‘fun’ gaming environment, while the Chromebook was perceived as a place to ‘get to work.’”

Districts across the country are weighing pros and cons of the two devices. And some, like Hillsborough, are choosing both: Chromebooks will be supplemented with Nexus tablets in the classroom, as “students work together in pairs, elbow to elbow, one holding a tablet, the other typing on a laptop.”

Read more about the rollout in Hillsborough, and the reasoning behind tech decisions at several other schools nationwide, here.

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